


In Another Life

by AceandShadow



Series: The Fisher and The Fighter [1]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Songs of War (Cartoon)
Genre: Brotherhood, Brotherly Love, Brothers, Guilt, Ingressus isn't such a bad guy, Loss, M/M, Spoilers, don't read if you haven't read S2 and 3 script, massive spoilers, no peas, only peace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:27:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28431648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceandShadow/pseuds/AceandShadow
Summary: Ingressus set out to do one thing, and one thing only - return to rebuild. It has cost him too much. In a quiet moment alone, the feels start to set in and guilt starts to weigh him down. He must find where this stems from in order to shift it.It all stems back to one person...
Relationships: Ingressus Voltaris/Achillean Nestoris (but as brothers dammit)
Series: The Fisher and The Fighter [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2130711
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	In Another Life

**Author's Note:**

> For the love of god DO NOT read any further if you didn't read SoW script for S2 and S3 because I have taken one of the greatest plot twists I have ever read and thrown it into my own words. Like, heck, I never saw this coming
> 
> This is based off of what Ingressus tells Senn and the flashback we read at the very end (yes, I mean read)

It’s been days – I should not be feeling like this. This is everything I could have wanted. I have returned exactly as I said I would. I have found myself in a far stronger position than during the Great War and I have plan over plan on retaking the Prime Songs, yet I do not feel triumphant in my actions.

Something is clawing away at me – something I cannot share with my clan, for they would call into question my position as Voltaris leader, and now is not the time for faltering. We are on the brink of a Second Great War and yet, I must focus. But how can I when I cannot shift this feeling…

This feeling of…

Of guilt?

Where has this guilt come from?

I have everything I need to continue pushing forward.

My name… _Deathsinger…_

That is not my name. I do not kill unless I must. Achillean was a must. I had to kill him…

_I had to…_

Just because I had to, doesn’t mean I _wanted_ to.

_Achillean… Achillean Nestoris…_

He just couldn’t keep away from me. He just couldn’t keep to his fishing. He had to interfere.

Sometimes I wish that he had just left me washed up on the Nestorian shore to be killed by some other Ardoni who would take matters into their own hands, destroying Voltaris everywhere they go. After all, _they_ are the ones who should be labelled ‘Deathsingers’…

I barely escaped with my life and yet, it was Achillean who saved me from impending death. Master Aegus Nestoris saved me from further trauma, and I had been given a second chance.

At least, I had at first.

Growing up having to hide my true identity, I was left with little to nothing to my name, but Achillean was there. He was always there. I _wanted_ him there. For me. It was selfish, but given the circumstances, it was least I could ask for.

I could see that he was tentative at first. Who’d have thought it? The great Tidesinger, nervous of a young Voltaris. Of course, he wasn’t the Tidesinger back then, but after what I had learned about the other four Ardoni clans, he was right to be nervous, even if I saw it as wrong.

That’s why I’m here now – to fight for my clan. I don’t need to rule anything or anyone. Just my clan. But first, I needed to take back what was rightfully ours and get revenge for everything they did to us.

I just needed to blend into the Nestoris crowd and Achillean was my way forward. I…also needed a friend. A brother.

What was the conversation starter? Yes… Fishing. I remember…

I remember the day I caught my first fish. I remember it so well – the look on Achillean’s face. It was the first time anyone of another clan had looked upon me with such pride and it caught me off-guard. We bonded and I…felt at home. In Nestoria.

I haven’t felt anything like it since.

Everything that Achillean knew about fighting up to this point is from me. _I_ taught him everything he knows. He had never even so much as wielded a sword before I came along. I figured that he taught me to fit in with the Nestoris, I should teach him the ways of the Voltaris – the _right_ way.

Naturally, he was reluctant at first. For someone who hated the existence of Songs, I hadn’t anticipated anything less. Luckily for him, I was stubborn. I kept pushing until he took the sword from my hands and we sparred until our hearts gave out.

It was the way we were for a while – sparring and fishing, fishing and sparring. Just the two of us and, for a while, everything was bliss. I rarely thought about the ongoing struggle with my own clan – no leader, no rights, no safety, and no way to stand up for themselves, and for that, I tortured myself by thinking about my ignorance. At any point during my upbringing, I could have – _should have_ – gone back to them with all my new knowledge, knowing what I did about the other clans and what they had done.

_Their… Champions…_

But the only reason I didn’t go back was because of… Achillean.

It always went back to him.

When the war began between the Nether and the Enderknights and the Ardoni were called upon to wield our Songs, they called for a champion to wield the Prime Songs, do you know who it was who turned to me and told me that I should enter?

Achillean Nestoris.

My sword skills were ‘unmatched,’ he said. He took me by the shoulders and told me I should reveal myself as Voltaris when I won, to show the Ardoni that we meant no harm – that we weren’t the monsters everyone thought we were. He promised it would be okay.

How I wished it worked. His heart was always in the right place – even when it nearly killed him… _even when it did…_

Aegus agreed and he returned to me Voltar. For the first time since washing up on the shores of Nestoria, I felt like I had a purpose, as though my fire was reignited, and I had a path forward. My intentions were clear, my goal in my sights and I knew what had to be done.

I just wish that…

_*sigh*_

I wish that the other Masters would’ve at least heard me.

After being denied those Prime Songs – the ones that are rightfully property of the Voltaris, the ones that labelled us as dangerous, violent, enemies. We are not! We never were! After being denied them, something inside me snapped and I felt like I needed to get them back just to give my clan a fighting chance at survival.

God help you, Thalleous Sendaris, for what you did to my clan… _To me…_

I didn’t want to slay the Masters, but they left me with no choice, and I would have gotten Aegus Nestoris as well if it weren’t for…

 _Achillean_ …

His name haunts me, and it shouldn’t… He was a brother.

Even when he stood between me and the Prime Songs up until he forced my hand, he was a brother. He is _still_ a brother.

I’m not proud of what I have done, but I did it in the name of my clan. I would do anything for them. I am doing everything for them. We didn’t deserve the treatment we got. We deserved none of it and Achillean knew it.

That’s why he needn’t dare use the Prime Songs against me.

That cost him.

But it also cost me.

This war… I committed to it in the name of my clan and I will see it through, with or without Achillean Nestoris.

I still look at the rivers and wonder what fish I could catch. I still look at Voltar and thank Aegus for believing in me. I still look at the Primes I have with me and think about how far we’ve come and how far we’ve yet to go.

One day, it will be worth it. It will all be worth it.

Achillean; _you_ were worth it. I’m only sorry that I forced you to oppose me, yet I hope you now see why. You were right – the Voltaris are not your enemy. But I was.

And I’m sorry, Achillean.

In another life, we would never have battled on Mount Velgrin. In another life, we would still be fishing on the shores of Nestoria. In another life, I’d have stayed hidden. Perhaps in another life, you would have left me to die.

In another life, the Voltaris would be accepted for who we are, and the Prime Songs would have been left well enough alone. But we are not in another life.

Not until I’m done in this one.


End file.
